Finding the right training reward

When trying to train any animal the "reward" is the most important part of the whole process. Now in most cases the reward is food; but the reward can also be petting or rubbing this works well with dogs and cats but not so much in birds. But in any case the reward is necessary and vital. Now with Marvin I have been using spray millet, but as I went on with his training I noticed that he really showed very little interest at all in the millet. At this point I was getting slightly frustrated and confused, thinking maybe I was pushing him to hard. And then I realized; that he just doesn’t want millet, and that I would need to try something else. Now as I mentioned earlier you don’t always have to use food as a reward, but somehow I had a feeling that Marvin wasn't going to see me petting him as such a great reward. I thought for a moment that showing him his mirror might work as he really enjoys seeing his reflection, but then I thought that it may confuse/anger him, every time I take it away and could be counterintuitive. Continuing to fiddle with my thinking cap I finally came up with a possible substitute for the millet. Check out the video and see what I came up with.

More training today

Today I tried to do some more clicker recognition training, but it didn't go over so well. In fact I would say it was a flop of a training day. Marvin did not show any interest in the fresh millet I bought him for training, I think a large factor for today was that I had just changed out his food bowl and was probably not very hungry. So I will try again tomorrow morning and hope for better results.

Some good news is that Marvin is taking to his new environment well. He enjoys flying around the living room and being on his wall mounted play stand. How ever he still seems to prefer being in his cage even with the door open and having free access to the bird room and climbing net; This may be something that will either take a very long time for him to over come or he may just never change on that. Marvin is also taking to his diet changes nicely. I have switched him to a better variety of seed mix, a lot less millet in this mixture. Having less millet in his seed bowl will hopefully want him to perform for it as a reward when training. We have not had a lot of luck with him taking to fresh fruits and veggies, but that may be one of the hardest challenges of this project.

Old bird and his old tricks

For today I am just going to show you some of Marvins preexisting "training"; i use the word training lightly as when I taught him these behaviors I really did not have any idea what I was doing and although it worked it really was not proper method, and there was no real reward except for me and him both singing and dancing together. Although this existing training will be helpful in re-capturing these behaviors into clicker based training, there could be some "lag" in the transition.

More Clicker Association

Today was Marvin's second Clicker Association training session. It went pretty well I would say. He was less nervous with being hand fed millet, and he also went for the millet multiple times which let me get in many clicks. I believe this is good progress and a few more good days like this and we could move on to target training and then to some other simple tricks.

With training Marvin there are a lot of variables that come into play more than just his age. There is the fact that he seems to rather be in his cage than to be out on the training perch or on a play stand, which makes him fairly nervous and always looking for a "way out" to get back to his cage. He has a strong attachment to mirrors; and in most cases will only sing or perform while in front of one, which could prove difficult when wanting him to perform when there is no mirror. However I see this project going in a good direction, and hopefully I can prove that you can teach an old bird new tricks.

Step One: The Clicker!

So to begin this tremendous task of teach an old bird new tricks. it first starts with a clicker. A lot of animal trainers use these with training. it’s basically the same as saying "good boy" to your dog when he sits/lies down/gives paw etc. basically it lets the animal know that it did something correct. but before you can start any sort of real training you have to get the animal to recognize that the click sounds means he will get a treat. For Marvin’s training I am currently using spray millet (for Moya I use sun flower seeds) the spray millet has always been a favorite of Marvin’s so he should take to it quickly, but I may see if there is anything else he likes better. Here is a video of his first training session of clicker recognition. Every time he took a bite of millet I clicked, it’s pretty simple! now since he has never really been hand fed, he was a bit nervous but it’s understandable. a few more sessions like this and then we can move on, once he realizes that "click = food"

Greetings and Introductions

Over the years I have always had a lot of different pets and most of were very well behaved and trained. but it wasn't until recently I started to get interested in training my animals beyond the basics. It all started with a cage; this cage was given to me by my aunt who recently lost a bird, she gave me the cage so that my Cockatiel Marvin could have a nice new place to live. Well as it turns out the cage spacing was just too big for Marvin, so I got a new bird! I did a lot of research and was destined to find a Meyers Parrot; as my cousin once had one and I liked him very much and the size and temperament seemed like a good fit. Well eventually I found a Meyers Parrot for sale at a local pet store, I went back about once a week to watch the birds progress as it was still too young to leave, and to just get the bird used to me and vice versa. Well when the time came and I was ready to purchase this new family member, the bird was sadly sold. but in its place was a pretty little Senegal Parrot, which is kind of like a cousin of the Meyers (both in the genus Poicephalus) so I started over with the constant visits and numerous questions. This time I purchased him before he could be sold to someone else. Life was great with my new little bird (who I named Moya after the ship from Farscape, because I thought originally he was a she) we were the best of friends, inseparable, I got him very used to being with me and letting me touch his wings and feet, and basically do whatever I wanted to him, with him knowing that he was safe the entire time. well let’s fast forward about a year or so... and then the switch came, the switch in his body know as puberty! This new onset of Hormones changed my bird forever and for the worse. Moya wanted nothing to do with me, or much of any one; although he seemed to like my wife now a lot more than me, which was the very opposite just a few months before. During this time there were many attacks, screaming, crying and somewhat serious thoughts of getting rid of little Moya. But I was never the kind of person who gives up on an animal, I was determined to get this bird back to the way he was... or at least manageable. so over hours, weeks, months and still going... I was able to turn the nasty little beak into a tolerable, manageable bird with the help of training.

But this isn't the story of Moya, this is the story of Marvin; remember Marvin from the beginning of the story? While all this was going on I was living in Oregon; and now South Dakota, but back at home in Massachusetts was my Marvin, who had become a bit of a living decoration in my parents’ house. Now I really wanted to take both Marvin and Moya with me when I moved but it just wasn't possible at the time. but it was nice when I would go home and get to see my bird still there in his cage, just as content as ever. but Let’s talk about Marvin’s life for a bit to get an idea of where he is coming from here. Back in 1997 my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I answered "a cockatiel!" because both of my aunts had many birds and I always thought they were just the coolest things ever! So boy was I surprised when on Christmas morning there was a cage and a bird under the tree! I quickly named him Marvin after my favorite Looney Toons Character Marvin the Martian! Over the years I taught Marvin a few various whistles like the "cat call" and "charge" and also taught him bob his head when I bobbed mine and also to raise his wings when I would. this was done mostly by Capturing the already existing behavior (although I had no real idea that it was a real training method at the time). and for the most part that was that he just lived his live in his cage happily whistling along. Now there was a time when Marvin would actually come camping with me and my family down in Plymouth and he would stay in our camper and play in the grass; but for the majority of his life Marvin was a caged bird, and he seemed okay with that.

It wasn't until just recently that the option of bringing him out to South Dakota seemed real; I had asked my mother if she thought that he would be up for the trek half way across the county. she seemed doubtful because of his old age, and he never really seemed to like change (new toys, new areas in the house, etc...) but I was determined to have my bird back. So I did just that I drove home for a mini vacation and then I took him back to SD with me! and he did great on the 2 day car ride; he was singing and dancing almost the entire way!

Little does Marvin know that his life is about to change more, hopefully for the better. My goal with this 16 year old, seed fed, living house ornament; is to change him into a trained, healthy, fully fledged member of my family. My goals for Marvin are as follows...
1) Improve his diet to more than just seeds
2) Get him to enjoy being outside of his cage
3) Basic clicker training
4) Flight recall training


Now I have already started to introduce him to different types of food pellets by mixing it with his seed, so far he seems curious but not thrilled. For tricks and flight training I will be using the clicker training method. with the help of experts such as BirdTricks.com, TrainedParrot.com, and my wife Angela who works as a zoo keeper and has clicker trained many different types of animals.